Egypt's interim government resigns

Feb. 24, 2014
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Breaking News / Tory Hargro, USA TODAY

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

CAIRO - Egypt's army-backed government resigned Monday, the prime minister said, marking yet another shakeup in the nation's political scene three years after the ouster of a longtime dictator.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi announced his cabinet's resignation in a live broadcast that aired Monday on state TV.

Beblawi said he and his government accepted responsibility for all decisions it made since assuming office last summer, but he offered no explanation for the resignations, the state news agency reported.

He said his government had a difficult task over the past few months and "most probably achieved good results," the state news agency MENA reported.

"By the end of the first stage of the political road map and the ratification of the new constitution, we have taken many strides on the road of building a democratic society that recognizes human rights," Beblawi said.

Beblawi's military-backed cabinet was sworn in on July 16, less than two weeks after Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the defense minister, ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, the nation's first freely elected leader.

The interim prime minister said his cabinet would remain in office until its resignation is accepted, MENA reported.

The reason for the resignations was not immediately clear, but they come amid a surge of strikes that analysts said put pressure on the government. Workers, including public transportation employees and those in the textile industry, have gone on strike in recent weeks demanding higher pay.

"Under these conditions it is very difficult for any cabinet to perform well," Mustapha Al Sayyid, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, said, noting that the government may have resigned to satisfy public opinion. "There is lack of security and political stability."

Egyptians had hoped the interim government would improve conditions in the country, Al Sayyid said. Beblawi, for example, has been criticized in local media as a lazy bureaucrat, leaving work in the middle of the afternoon and lacking energy to run the country effectively, he said.

Khalil al-Anani, a senior associate at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C., said the resignations are directly related to an anticipated presidential campaign by army chief Sisi.

The army chief is required by law to resign from his position as defense minister if he wants to run in the presidential election, which is expected to take place in coming months.

"This is also an attempt from those who are currently running the country to absorb some of the anger over the last weeks because of the worker strikes and the inability of the government to run the country economically and socially," al-Anani said.

"He cannot run within the current circumstances, which are very problematic for any president," he said.

Egypt has withstood ongoing political turbulence since longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in 2011 after ruling the country for 29 years. The country's first freely elected president rose to power in 2012, but he was overthrown last year by Sisi.

The country is grappling with a high budget deficit, rising unemployment and increasing frequency of militant attacks that are continuing to hurt what is left of tourism and investment.

While Beblawi on Monday said strides have been made toward building a democratic society, international rights groups said freedoms under interim authorities over the past eight months were reversed and that the government has grown increasingly repressive amid a crackdown on dissenting voices.

Protests since last summer have been routinely dispersed with excessive force and demonstrators, journalists and academics have faced prosecution and arrest for peaceful expression.

"Egyptian and international human rights organizations have for years called on Egyptian authorities to amend the country's penal code, whose overly broad provisions were the government's main legal tool to lock up dissenters," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, in a recent report.

"Today, prosecutors have at their disposal an even greater arsenal of repressive laws that criminalize legitimate expression, assembly, and association," he said.

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